WBO welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford 38-0 (29) retained his title with a 10th round knockout ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter 31-4-1 (17) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday night.
The 34-year-old switch-hitter from Omaha, Nebraska had his hands full in the first half of the fight as Porter switched between boxing and brawling to land some heavy blows from both hands. Porter was particularly effective at crowding Crawford on the inside and preventing him from getting leverage on his shots.
But as we have come to expect from Crawford he made the necessary adjustments later in the find to find room for his shots, working Porter’s body and catching him with straight left hands coming in.
Porter, 34, from Akron, Ohio but boxing out of Las Vegas, slowed down in the ninth and early in the 10th Crawford sent him to the canvas with a counter left hand. A follow up volley of blows sent Porter to the canvas for a second time, prompting trainer and father Kenny Porter to step onto the ring apron to stop the fight. The time of the stoppage was 1:21.
According to CompuBox, the total power punches landed for Crawford and Porter were neck and neck 65 to 67. Crawford out-jabbed Porter, landing 33 of 159 (21%) while Porter landed 12 of 94 (13%) of his jabs.
Porter was having his first fight in 15 months, while Crawford was having his first bout in a year.
All three judges had the fight even after the first six rounds before Crawford pulled away. The champion was leading on all three official scorecards 86-85, 86-85 and 87-84.
“Shawn Porter is a good fighter,” Crawford said. “He was doing some little slick things in there, making me think. I knew I caught him with a good uppercut and then when I caught him with another left hook, I saw on his face he was real hurt. His dad did the right thing by stopping it, because I was coming with a vengeance.”
Video footage after the fight showed IBF welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr 27-0 (21) sitting in the crowd. He left immediately after the bout was stopped.
Crawford, who previously held the WBO lightweight title and unified all four major world titles at junior welterweight, flagged a move up to junior middleweight if the Spence fight cannot be made.
“He was at my fight?” Crawford asked. “That boy said he wasn’t gonna never be at my fights and now he’s at my fights. You see what I did compared to what he did. Who’s number one in the welterweight division now? I’ve been calling him out all day. Maybe I’ll go up to 154. Maybe if Spence gets his tail out of his butt, he’ll fight me.”
Porter said he didn’t expect his father to stop the fight but said he respected his decision.
“He’s doing what he knows he needs to do. I didn’t expect that. We’ve never had a conversation about that, we just kind of always had a silent understanding, but I didn’t expect it,” Porter said.
“He was catching me too clean and that’s what my dad saw. I saw it, I felt it. My timing was a little off. A great fighter over there wouldn’t allow me to catch my rhythm. That was my game plan, not to allow him to catch his. He’s a dynamite dude in and out of the ring. Congratulations.”
Porter Sr attempted to explain why he stopped the fight.
“He didn’t prepare like I wanted him to prepare, and that makes me say, ‘I don’t want him in that situation,’” he said. “He fought a great fighter, the guy’s super sharp, and he’s at a deficit. It’s like fighting this guy blindfolded when you’re at a deficit like that. I wasn’t going to let that happen to him.”
In an IBF middleweight title eliminator Esquiva ‘La Pantera’ Falcao 29-0 (20) won a six round technical decision over Patrice Volny 16-1 (10) after a particularly nasty clash of heads left Falcao unable to continue. The scorecards were 58-57 and 58-56 for Falcao, while the third judge had Volny leading 58-56.
Middleweight Janibek ‘Qazaq Style’ Alimkhanuly 11-0 (7) delivered an eight-round beatdown to Hassan N’Dam 38-6 (21).
Southpaw Alimkhanuly couldn’t miss with his power shots, landing a remarkable 55% according to CompuBox. Alimkhanuly scpred a knockdown in the third and had N’Dam’s head snapping back repeatedly from left uppercuts in the middle rounds.
At 2:40 of the eighth veteran referee Kenny Bayliss stepped in to save N’Dam from further punishment.
N’dam, 37, protested the stoppage, telling Bayliss “I am ready to die.”
Lightweight Raymond ‘Danger’ Muratalla 13-0 (11) scored a fifth-round stoppage of late replacement Elias ‘El Macho’ Araujo 21-4 (8). The time was 2:20.
Former WBO super bantamweight champion Isaac ‘Royal Storm’ Dogboe 23-2 (15) overcame a slow start to win a majority decision over Christopher ‘Pitufo’ Diaz 26-4 (16) by scores of 95-95, 97-93 and 96-94 after 10 heats.
Featherweight Adam ‘Bluenose’ Lopez 15-3-1 (6) had to settle for a no decision against Adan Ochoa 12-2-1 (5) after an unintentional clash of heads brought a premature end to their scheduled eight-round bout in the second round.
Super featherweight Karlos Balderas 11-1 (10) stopped Julio Cortez 15-4 (11) at 2:13 of the fourth in their six round contest.
Welterweight Delante ‘Tiger’ Johnson 1-0 (1) scored a knockout over Antonious Grabel 3-2-1 (3) in the fourth and final round of their bout. The time was 1:54.
